June 2009, A New Maine Adventure

We had thought we were doing good getting the boat loaded on Friday, a full three days before our takeoff on Tuesday! So we were sitting in the left hand turn lane at Rt 44 when BOOM!, we were hit from behind by a woman in a Ford Econoline van. The bumper on her van was higher than ours so it road up and over resulting in caving in the hatchback door on our Plymouth minivan. Naturally, our insurance company was closed by the time we got back home but they had a website where we could enter the info in and even schedule an appointment on Saturday with a local body shop for an estimate. Everything worked out and we dropped the van off Monday on our way to the boat. Such excitement.

After numerous trips to the boat, everything was finally loaded Monday and the Fitchetts invited us for a send off dinner at PYC that night which was delicious - along with all the wine. Retiring to the boat, the wind howled all night long, averaging around 20kts without letup. The next morning I went to retrieve the dinghy and found the entire area in back of the fuel dock filled with branches, wood, leaves and various other river harvestables. After about 1/2 hour of scooting up the dinghy through the stuff, it was finally free.

By this time the wind was peaking again at 20 kts but at least it was out of the north! We departed and put up the jib and coasted downriver, the first time in recorded history that we were headed in the same direction as the wind!

It turned out to be a nice day actually with temps near 80 as we sit at our anchorage here at Hook Mt.

Lance departed last year and we now have a new dog, Hoolie (see photo). He's full of spirit and has taken to the boat like second nature. Like last year, I'll publish daily whenever there's an internet connection. Next stop Northport we hope.